Changing Seasons
by SnowTigerShelby
Summary: There are many different types of relationships. But one guy needs to choose what kind best fit him and certain girl.
1. Chapter 1

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><p>The boy sighed.<p>

He was definitely not in the mood for this today.

Instead of receiving an A-ranked mission like he'd been hoping, he was stuck with "protecting one of the future elite" as the Hokage so kindly put it. But all-in-all, it meant the same thing: baby-sitting.

Being 19, he expected something a bit more challenging for a mission. With better pay as well.

Was this karma? Was this because of the other day when he used sharingan to get out of his and Gai's "Taijutsu-only" spar?

He chuckled a bit remembering that day.

Oh well. This mission was only supposed to last a couple of hours. How hard was it to watch a little brat play with toys?

He walked a few more miles towards a humble looking neighborhood. This was the part of Konoha that always gave him a sense of peace. He didn't know why, but he just felt that simply walking through these parts could calm just about any man.

When he came up to a certain house, he knocked on the door and waited. After a few seconds, a frustrated looking woman opened the door. He couldn't blame her, seeing as he was about ten minutes late.

Once the lady realized who it was, she gave a knowing look. "I should have known it was you Hatake." She shook her head. "I swear, you are JUST like your father. He was always late for everything."

The boy gave a small smile.

Kakashi Hatake. He'd become a jounin at the mere age of 13 and was regularly given challenging missions to fit his rank, but for some reason, the Hokage decided that he "needed a break".

Kakashi scoffed. A break? The old geezer must have just run out of mission requests.

The woman in front of him led him inside of her home.

"Thank you Kakashi for doing this. Kizashi and I are so grateful. We just needed a day to spend together. We love our daughter and all but," she sighed. "She's beginning to become a handful…"

Kakashi gave a confused look but didn't ask what she meant. "It's no problem Mebuki-san. And don't worry. I'm pretty sure I can handle a five year old."

Mebuki seemed to have given him a sympathetic look before opening a door at the end of the hallway.

Kakashi looked into the room and his jaw dropped at the sight.

The walls had been embedded with what looked like hundreds of kunai and shuriken. Targets were placed everywhere: ceilings, walls, floor…What the hell was going on?

Mebuki looked at the boy's face a laughed. "This used to be her room. We've added onto the house so that she can have a new bedroom, while this serves as her training room."

Training room? Wasn't this kid five? He turned towards the woman next to him. "Um…maybe you should get your daughter into new habits…this isn't quite what one would consider…normal…"

Mebuki raised an eyebrow. "This coming from the kid that graduated the academy at 5 and became a chunin at 6…"

Kakashi shrugged. She had a point.

Mebuki tucked a strand of dark red, loose hair behind her ear and began walking back towards the front of the house. Not knowing what else to do, Kakashi simply followed. They eventually wound up in the kitchen, where he saw yet another familiar face. Only this one being for not-so-good reasons.

Kakashi sneered. "Kizashi."

Hearing a male voice from the other side of the room, Kizashi looked up from his meal. Upon seeing who it was, he shot a glare right back. "Hatake."

Mebuki noticed the tension between the two and sighed. She knew she was never going to hear the end of having let Kakashi watch their daughter from her husband.

"Alright Kakashi," she finally spoke. "We're going to go on ahead and be on our way. We'll be back in about 2 hours, give or take. So please watch over her and make sure she isn't getting into too much trouble. OH! And the scrolls are off limits! She knows this, but she still tries to get into them every once in a while. Make sure she doesn't, ok?"

Kakashi simply continued to have his glaring competition with her husband, but showed that he was listening with a slight nod of his head.

After a few more minutes of Mebuki getting ready and Kizashi putting his dishes into the sink, the two left to spend some quality time together.

Once he heard the front door shut, Kakashi let out a sigh of relief. He would never understand how a woman so beautiful and seemingly perfect could wind up with a man so heartless and cruel.

He scowled. Well at least, based on what he knew, Kizashi loved his family. His wife was the love of his life and his daughter meant the world to him. His protective nature was just about the only good trait that he had in Kakashi's eyes-

Which suddenly widened in realization. It took everything in his will-power to not smack himself:

He'd forgotten to ask where the brat was…

Oh well. He'd just have to sense the small chakra signature that she had developed throughout her growth thus far.

Once he found it, he let out a breath of relief and began walking in that direction. It always sucked trying to seek out a child's chakra signature, seeing as how small they were because of their young ages and petite figures.

He reached a door at the back of the house and slid it open, knowing that it led outside.

Once he opened it, he quickly raised his hand and caught a kunai that had been aimed directly towards his face. After a few seconds of examining the item in his hand, he heard a small voice come from the opposite side of the back yard.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Kakashi looked towards where he heard the voice and saw a little girl that must have been no taller than a little past his knees. Her cheeks were puffed out in frustration and her eyebrows were knitted into that of annoyance.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "And how is it that I'm the one that needs to watch it? Shouldn't little girls being playing with teddy bears and dolls anyways?"

The girl rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore his comment. "I was aiming for my target." She pointed to the door. "See?"

"Hmm?" He looked beside him at the door that he had opened, only to find out that there was, indeed, a target on it. And based on the way it was placed and the position of his face, if he hadn't opened the door, she would have gotten a perfect bulls-eye. And from the looks of it, it would have been on the first try.

Kakashi, although not too pleased with her attitude, was very impressed with her skills.

Smiling slightly, - unbeknownst to the child due to his mask - he decided that it might not be too bad watching this girl. She was pretty interesting for a kid.

"What's your name?"

She put her hands on her hips and blew some hair out of her face before answering, "Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

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	2. Chapter 2

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Kakashi watched, amused, as the little girl in front of him took a stance that he assumed was supposed to mean she was tired of talking and wanted to get back to her training.

Shrugging, he walked over to a nearby wall against the house and took a seat. Sakura raised an eyebrow in question, which he waved off with a bored expression. "Just continue on as if I'm not even here. I promise not to bother you anymore the rest of the time I'm here."

Sakura scoffed. That apparently wasn't good enough for her. "I _don't _need anyone here to watch me. I can take care of myself. So you are welcome to leave at any time now."

Kakashi had been in the middle of fishing out his most prized possession, but as the orange item was halfway out of his pouch, he stopped and looked up and the pink-haired girl. She surely didn't have that big of a head, did she?

"In fact, even if an S-class missing ninja decided to turn up here, I bet I could take him down in seconds flat!"

That was it. Kakashi replaced his book back into its original position and sat up straighter with a stern look in his eye. This kid needed a reality check.

_And it looks like I'm going to have to give it to her._

"Listen kid, I don't know if you realize this, but you're only 5…. And have no prior experience with-"

"So what?" she interrupted. "I'm stronger than the rest of my friends and even some of their older siblings. And I'm going to be starting the ninja academy soon which I will probably graduate from in less than a year."

Smirking cockily, Sakura turned around and started walking toward some of her targets set up on trees. "So you can go on ahead and leave now. I'm probably much stronger than you too anyways."

That was it!

One second, Sakura was walking with her nose in the air towards the other end of the yard, the next she was below ground from the neck down.

Looking around with her eyes wide, she finally focused forward when a figure appeared before her and knelt down to make viewing him easier.

Glaring daggers at the older man, Sakura demanded, "Release me."

Kakashi raised a brow in response but made no move to do as she'd said. "This is a simple D-rank earth style ninjutsu. Any academy student would be able to escape from it."

Smirking, he stood up and began walking toward his previous spot against the wall. "I'll just leave you to it then, hm? Surely someone of your expertise should be able to-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence when he heard a quite poof come from behind him. Turning quickly, he realized that where Sakura's head had been previously was void of life.

"You were saying?"

Looking up, he noticed the little girl standing on a branch in a nearby tree. "Wh- how did you…?"

Winking and sticking her tongue out at him, she simply stated, "My father taught me everything I know."

Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the thought of the arrogant man. Smirking he shrugged uncharacteristically and said, "Don't you mean he taught you everything he knows? I'm sure this is probably the extent of his abilities as well."

Sakura notably became appalled at his statement and instantly turned red with anger while pointing an accusing finger at him. "Don't you _dare_ talk about my daddy that way! He's the greatest ninja that's ever lived, he told me himself! And one day, he and I are going to get married and live happily forever! That's a promise!"

Kakashi looked at the little girl with amusement. Sure most little girls dreamed of marrying their daddy's when they grew up, but this one seemed to be completely serious about it. As level-headed and skilled as she may have seemed, maybe she was just an average little girl in some ways.

Before he could retort with a smart remark, Kakashi noticed that he foot was slipping slightly and responded in an instant.

One moment, Sakura standing in a defensive pose on a tree branch, and the next she was in the arms of the exact person she had been previously telling off.

It took a couple of seconds of looking into the man's lone eye before she realized just how close her face was to his.

"Hey kid, are you oka- Oof!"

Dropping the kid the rest of the 3 feet to the ground, Kakashi quickly grasped his nose through his mask. "You little wench! What was that for!"

Sakura turned away from him blushing. "You're lucky that's all I did. Imagine if my daddy had caught you. _Especially _after saying all of the nasty things you said about him."

Removing his hand, the copy-nin recognized the red that stained his hand. This little brat had just punched him so hard his nose bled. Albeit, it wasn't broken, but still!

Oh how he wanted to teach this kid the lesson of a lifetime, but he knew it wasn't his place and that if he _did _go too far, he'd feel the wrath of Kizashi. He knew he could take him down in an instant, but he would still like to evade the situation.

He heard a little sigh from behind him and felt a tiny hand grasp his free one, tugging slightly to get him to turn around.

"Come here. You're going to make me feel all bad now."

Kneeling down near her, he watched with caution as her little hand raised up towards his face in order to remove his hand. She gently tugged his mark down just enough to see his nose and allowed green chakra to flow out from her hand.

Kakashi's eyes widened for what seemed to have been the millionth time that day. _Is that… medical ninjutsu? Just what are this kid's parent's feeding her?!_

"My daddy is amazing and all, but my mommy taught me a few things too." She scrunched up her little nose. "What I don't like is when they teach me something and then tell me that I'm _not _allowed to use it. It's not fair…"

Smiling slightly, he watched as she tried to concentrate on her task. Beads of sweat were starting to accumulate on her forehead and she bit her lip slightly as she pushed more chakra into her actions.

For most medic nins, this would have been the simplest of all tasks. The average chunin could accomplish it with no problem. Kakashi always struggled in this area of ninjustus before of the excessive amount of skill needed for the chakra control.

However, this was a little girl.

A little 5 year old girl.

A little 5 year old girl that wasn't even enrolled in the academy yet.

He could tell that she struggled with the simple ninjutsus she had already shown him that day, but only a little more training would polish and perfect them.

Kakashi was broken out of his thoughts when the pleasant warmth of another chakra signature left his face.

He opened his eye - when had he closed it? - and watched as she swayed back and forth in one spot. He noticed that her chakra signature was low and knew that she had probably drained much of her chakra during their mini spar and healing.

Kakashi swiftly picked up the little girl and began walking towards the house. Before he could even get to the door, he could hear her even breathing and knew that she was asleep.

He felt her slightly snuggle deeper into his flak jacket and gave a small smile. This kid surely was something else and he really wanted to see how she would grow and who she would become.

It didn't take long for him to find her room – not the one that had been torn to shreds with weapons – and laid her gently into her white bed with pink pedal designs decorating the spread.

After tucking her in, he left the room quietly and shut the door behind him. Excitement filled him suddenly as he remembered something.

He began walking towards the living room and he pulled out Icha Icha.

With a blush tinting his cheeks he turned to a dog-eared page and thought, _Now, Kaede-sama… where were we…?_

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